Razer Ouroboros Review

Slipping an entire manual from MadCatz, the Razer Ouroboros is Razer’s most ambitious futuristic-ish design to date. The Snake-company, as I like to call them, has been making pretty standard, slightly varied gaming mices for decades, and they are pretty solid and well designed for a variety of users and grip styles. The Ouroboros is different in every sense, at least from what the company has been making so far. Unlike MadCatz’s C.A.T mouse series, it’s not completely bonker-ly (yes, I made it up), but the inspiration is undeniable.

Razer would tell you it was inspired by the Batmobile and Lamborghini Reventon though, and like those fast cars, the Ouroboros is a stupendous piece of hardware that turns heads and packs impressive power to boot. Of the ambidextrous origin, the Ouroboros packs Razer’s new 4G Dual Sensor system, “1ms gaming grade” wireless performance, a dedicated “clutch trigger” or sniper button, and a fully customizable body fit.

That’s a press pack and not a retail version. You wish.

In fact, Ouroboros’ main attractive point beyond the flashy design is its customizability – it lends you specific tools to completely change the way the mouse feels and holds in your hands. You can adjust the palm rest, which goes from almost flat to big belly allowing users to tune to what is best comfortable for them. Razer also throws in two sets of ‘side panels’ or grips: one with a slightly rubbery texture, and the other that gives a narrow platform to rest your thumb and your pinky finger on. The genius here is that the grips are magnetized, so instead of awkwardly trying to fit them in, you just snap it on the side and it will stick. It took me literally a second, during a game, to change the grip – super simple stuff.

I just wish the palm rest was slightly more adjustable. You can make the Ouroboros compact by adjusting the palm rest upwards, but only to a certain degree. The mouse is quite lengthy and heavy, and even after spending a few minutes tuning it, I was unable to find my sweet spot where the mouse would feel comfortable and in control. I attribute that to the length and I really wish Razer had looked into having that fully customizable as well (I guess the battery compartment below it was holding it back?). This would also help the palm rest to close the gap between it and the mouse buttons, whose seam irritates my palm to no extent, but that’s more of a personal thing and may vary between users.

The Ouroboros is an eleven button mouse. While the nine are obvious, the grip rest has been converted into a make-shift “clutch triggers”. These triggers drops sensitivity down when pressed to basically help gamers align headshots better and snipe on-the-go. It’s a neat trick and marginally better than a separate button, however it’s not feasible as it requires you to squeeze the mouse making your aim go all bonkerly ™.

Another issue with button placement are the side rockers. It’s way too far below on the side to make it reachable comfortably. For my hand size and grip, it was impossible to hit button 5 without actually loosing my grip and making a wide gesture to reach it. Pressing button 4 was just about, as well.

The Ouroboros is a wireless mouse but can be run in wired mode. The mouse ships with a rechargeable battery, however it can run on a single AA battery, as well. Razer claims the Ouroboros will give 12 hours on each charge but I cannot say that’s entirely accurate. I would park the figure at close to 8 to 9 hours with daily browsing, work and a chunk of gaming involved.

Recharging the Ouroboros is fairly simple – just launch it on the included dock and it will start blinking merrily as it re-energizes. The dock is a neat little thing, compact and not to overly complicated to install and use. It has a strong base that will stick to any flat surface and seriouslyhold its position. It’s quite the fighter. I should note that I did have problems charging the mouse using the dock at first. I would leave it on charge for an entire day only to have it die within minutes. Only after I let it charge through the USB cable did it manage to hold juice, and since then did not have problems sprucing it up from the dock.

Performance has always been Razer’s strong suit and Ouroboros is great too. The Razer Mama set standards for a wireless mouse, and while the Ouroboros doesn’t quite hit the mark, it is very responsive and smooth even at higher DPI. I did notice hiccups here and there, and they were quite frequent to overlook it, and at $129.99, its lays incongruously with Razer’s precedent. Using it in wired mode took away the hiccups, though.

Conclusion
Razer Ouroboros burns through the wallet but it’s the fanciest, most advance gaming mouse you could own right now. Razer is not just banking on wireless and ambidextrous-ness to provide worth for the high price tag, but gives it an extra kick with superb customizability and performance to back it up. I only wish the design was given a little more thought to better cater to a larger base of grip styles. Also, allow us to make it smaller, Razer!

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